Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent representations he has received from the Scottish Government on requesting additional borrowing powers.

The fiscal framework we have agreed with the Scottish Government already includes significant borrowing powers.

The Scottish Government can borrow up to £450m per year for capital spending and, in normal times, borrow up to £300m per year to help manage day-to-day spending in relation to tax and welfare forecast error.

However, under the terms of the fiscal framework, we are doubling this day-to-day borrowing from £300m to £600m per year in 2021-22 and the following two years.

This is on top of the share of UK Government borrowing the Scottish Government receives through the Barnett formula. Since the start of the pandemic the Scottish Government has received an additional £14.5bn of Barnett funding.